Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday asked the Tobacco Board to ensure purchase of accumulated tobacco stocks from farmers.
Mr. Naidu held a meeting with tobacco growers from Guntur, Prakasam and West Godavari districts, which was also attended by Agriculture Minister P. Pulla Rao and Tobacco Board Chairman K. Gopal. Mr. Naidu wanted the board to take the initiative to ensure remunerative prices for the growers and said following good price earlier and by accepting traders’ suggestions, the growers increased the area of cultivation. As a result, the demand fell and the prices plummeted.
He urged the traders to come to the rescue of tobacco growers ‘in this hour of distress’ and asserted that there must not be loss of even a rupee to farmers. He said the accumulated stock should be purchased by traders and stocked in godowns.
Promising that the Centre and State and the Board would take necessary steps in this regard, he told the growers that he had taken up the issue with Union Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman.
